Neo-Taino nations Totally Explained

Everything about Neo-taino Nations totally explained

Neo-taino nations are defined here as the assorted nations of the Caribbean islands, that together with the Tainos, were described on the arrival of European chroniclers or which arose after this historic record was established. Genetically these populations are of northeast Asian origins as defined by mitochondrial DNA haplogroups A, B and C. (External Link

)

Introduction

Some scholars consider it important to distinguish the Taíno from the neo-Taino nations or neo-Taíno nations of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Lucaya of the Bahamas, Jamaica, and to a lesser extent from Haiti and Quisqueya (approximately the Dominican Republic). Linguistically or culturally these differences extended from various cognates or types of canoe: canoa, piragua, cayuco (for example Zayas, 1914) to distinct languages. Languages diverged even over short distances (Wilson. 1990). Religiously these groups often had distinctly non-Taíno deities such as the goddess Jagua (External Link

), strangely enough the god Teju Jagua is a major demon of indigenous Paraguayan mythology (External Link

), (External Link

). Still these groups plus the high Taíno are considered Island Arawak, part of a widely diffused assimilating culture a circumstance witnessed even today by names of places in the New World; for example localities or rivers called Guamá (the Taíno name for ‘Lonchocarpus domingensis’ a leguminous tree wide spread in the Caribbean (External Link

), the designation of a chief (External Link

), Guamá was also the name of famous Taíno (External Link

) who fought the Spanish) are found in Cuba, Venezuela and Brazil.
Thus, since the neo-Taíno had far more diverse cultural input and a greater societal and ethnic heterogeneity than the true high Taíno (Rouse, 1992) of Boriquen (Puerto Rico) a separate section is presented here. A broader language group is Arawakan languages. The term Arawak (Aruaco) is said derived from an insulting term meaning eaters of meal given to them by mainland Caribs. In turn the Arawak legend explains the origin of the Caribs as offspring of a putrid serpent.
The social classes of the neo- Taíno, generalized from Bartolomé de las Casas, appeared to have been loosely feudal with the following Taíno classes: naboría (common people), nitaíno' (sub-chiefs, or nobles), bohique, (shamans priests/healers), and the cacique (chieftains, or princes). However, the neo- Taíno seem to have been more relaxed in this respect.

Administrative and/or national units

The Spanish found that most Cuban peoples for the part living peacefully in tidy towns and villages grouped into numerous principalities called Cacigazgos or principalities with an almost feudal social structure Bartolomé de las Casas. They were ruled by leaders or princes, called Caciques. Cuba was then divided into Guanahatabey, Ciboney-Taíno (here neo-Taíno), and Classical (high) Taíno ISBN 0-8173-5123-X. Cuba was then divided into Guanahatabey, Ciboney-Taíno, and Classical Taíno ISBN 0-8173-5123-X. Then some of Western Cuba was Guanahatabey. (External Link

) and some Siboney (see below). Taíno-like cultures controlled most of Cuba dividing it into the Cacigazgos or principalities Granberry and Vescelius (2004) and other contemporary authors only consider the cazigazgo of Baracoa as classical or high Taíno). Cuban Cacigazgos including Bayaquitiri, Macaca, Bayamo, Camagüey, Jagua, Habana y Haniguanica are treated here as “neo-Taíno” . Hispaniolan (Haití and Quisqueya) principalities at about 1500 included Maguá (Cacique Guarionex); Xaraguá (Behecchio); Maguana (Caonabo); Higüey also called Iguayagua (External Link

)(Higüayo); Ciguayo (Mayobanex), and unnamed region under Cacique Guanacagarí (Wilson, 1990). These principalities are considered to have various affinities to the contemporary Taíno and neo- Taíno cultures from what is now known as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but are generally believed somewhat different ISBN 0-8173-5123-X.

Farming and fishing

The adroit farming and fishing skills of the neo-Taíno nations shouldn't be underestimated; the names of fauna and flora that survive today are testimony of their continued use. Neo-Taíno fishing technologies were most inventive, including arpón (harpoons), and nasa (fishnets) and traps. Neo-Taíno common names of fish are still used today (DeSola, 1932 ; Erdman, 1983; Florida Fish and Wild Life Commission (Division of Marine Fisheries) 2002; Puerto Rico, Commonwealth, 1998). Agriculture included a wide variety of germplasm, including corn (maiz), peanuts, tomato, squash, and beans plus a vast array of tree fruits. Tubers in most frequent use were yuca (Manihot esculenta) (External Link

) a crop with perhaps 10,000 years of development in the Americas; boniato (the "sweet potato"--Ipomoea batatas) (External Link

), and malanga (Xanthosoma sp.) (External Link

Neo-Taíno pharmacopoeia

As with all Arawak (Schultes, Raffault. 1990) and similar cultures there was considerable use of natural pharmacopoeia (Robineau, 1991).

Taíno studies

Taíno studies are in a state of both vigorous revival and conflict (Haslip-Viera, 2001). In this conflict deeply embedded cultural mores, senses of nationality and ethnicity struggle with each other. The Syboneistas undertook studies and wrote of neo-Tainos as part and cover for independence struggles against Spain (Fajardo, 1829-circa1862; Gautier Benítez, 1873).

Sexual mores

Neo-Taíno sexual freedom is well documented by such as Bartolomé de las Casas, Fernández de Oviedo and Américo Vespucio. Father de las Casas writes: "The Indian women of Cuba, as once did women of many places, went naked. Married women wore a small skirt or apron, called an enagua, which didn't cover their breasts and rarely reached the knee. These women in the marriage ceremony, took to the marriage chamber all the friends of the husband, and later emerged to the cry Manikato, the cry of victory." (Father Bartolomé de la Casas, circa 1500). Yet there are some who question this in a debate recalling the old controversies surrounding Margaret Mead.
The legend of the mermaid is said to arise from the Ciboney account of seductive, sexually generous Aycayia, the incarnation of beauty and of sin who gave men pleasure but robbed them of will ((External Link

)). She and her six lusty sisters were punished, and Aycayia was condemned to the care of an ancient crone Guanayoa, and sent to an isolated place called Punta Majagua. This exile didn't improve the situation because she was constantly "visited" by men. Finally, sent to sea, she was said to have transmuted into a mermaid.

Neo-Taíno and Taíno art

Taíno and related art has been celebrated in several significant exhibitions (Alegria, and Arrom 1998; Bercht, et al. 1997; Bullen (External Link

), Dacal et al.; Kerchache, 1994, (External Link

), most notably in Paris (External Link

); Maciques, 2004)/
Neo-Taíno music (areíto) survives as echoes in the rich traditions of the popular music of the Caribbean, but is believed to continue to exist in its purest form and associated spirituality among the Waroa of Venezuela (Olsen, 1996)

Metallurgy

The art of the neo-Taínos demonstrates that these nations had metallurgical skills, and it has been postulated by some for example Paul Sidney Martin (External Link

),] that the inhabitants of these islands mined and exported metals such as copper (Martin et al. 1947). The Cuban town of (San Ramón de) Guaninao means the place of copper and is surmised to have been a site of pre-Columbian mining (Zayas, 1914).

Neo-Taíno nations and related ethnic groups

(following Granberry and Vescelius, 2004) include:

Ciboney

Ciguayo

A separate ethnic identity that differed in language and customs from the classical or high Taíno who lived on the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola then known as Quisqueya and now the Dominican Republic. Wilson (1990) states that circa 1500 this was the kingdom Cacigazgo of Cacique Guacangarí.

Lucaya

A separate ethnic identity from what was Bimini and now are islands of the Bahamas. Also known to have inhabited the small islands south and close to Cuba known currently as Jardines de la Reina, where the Cuban neo-Taíno leader Cacique Bayamo and Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez joined forces to make war on them.

Macorix

Another separate ethnic identity from what was Quisqueya and now the Dominican Republic. Their language was said to be mutually unintelligible with Taíno, requiring bilingual abilities, but may have been similar to Ciguayo (Wilson, 1990).

Guanahatabey

A separate ethnic identity from far western Cuba.

Eyeri/Kaliphuna

Often called Carib, the women, who were often abducted neo-Taínas, spoke Eyeri, a language very close to Taíno (Breton,1665) (External Link

); the men spoke a variant of Carib for trade and ceremony (Wilson, 1990; Rouse, 1992).

Florida tribes

The Tequesta of the southeast coast of the Florida peninsula were once considered to be related to the Taino, but most anthropologists now doubt this. The Tequesta had been present in the area for at least 2,000 years at the time of first European contact, and are believed to have built the Miami Stone Circle (External Link

) (External Link

).
It is possible that a few Lucayas reached Florida shortly before the first European contacts in the area, but the northwestern Bahamas had remained uninhabited until approximately 1200, and the long established presence of the existing tribes in Florida would have likely prevented any pioneering settlements by people who had only just reached the neighboring islands. Analysis of ocean currents and weather patterns indicates that people traveling by canoe from the Bahamas to Florida were likely to land in northern Florida rather than closer to the Bahamas. A single 'Antillean axe head' found near Gainesville, Florida may support some limited contacts. Due to the same ocean currents, direct travel in canoes from southern Florida to the Bahamas was unlikely.

The term and context of the Ciboney (Siboney)

Ciboney (also Siboney) is a term preferred in Cuban historic context for the neo-Taino-Siboney nations of the island of Cuba. Our knowledge of the Cuban indigenous cultures which are often, but less precisely lumped into a category called Taíno (Caribbean Island Arawak) comes from these invaders’ written language we know as Spanish, oral traditions and considerable archeological evidence. The Spanish found that most Cuban peoples for the part living peacefully in tidy towns and villages grouped into numerous principalities called Cacigazgos or principalities with an almost feudal social structure Bartolomé de las Casas. They were ruled by leaders or princes, called Caciques. Cuba was then divided into Guanahatabey, Ciboney-Taíno (here neo-Taíno), and Classical (high) Taíno ISBN 0-8173-5123-X. Cuba was then divided into Guanahatabey, Ciboney-Taíno, and Classical Taíno ISBN 0-8173-5123-X. Then some of Western Cuba was Guanahatabey. (External Link

) and some Siboney (see below). Taíno-like cultures controlled most of Cuba dividing it into the Cacigazgos or principalities Granberry and Vescelius (2004) and other contemporary authors only consider the cazigazgo of Baracoa as classical or high Taíno). Cuban Cacigazgos including Bayaquitiri, Macaca, Bayamo, Camagüey, Jagua, Habana y Haniguanica are considered here a neo-Taino. These principalities are considered to have various affinities to the contemporary Taíno and neo- Taíno cultures from what is now known as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but are generally believed somewhat different ISBN 0-8173-5123-X.

Ciguayo

A separate ethnic identity, that differed in language and customs from the classical or high Taíno who lived on the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola then known as Quisqueya and now the Dominican Republic

Lucaya

A separate ethnic identity from what was Bimini and now are islands of the Bahamas. Also know to have inhabited the small islands south and close to Cuba known currently as Jardines de la Reina, where the Cuban neo-Taíno leader Cacique Bayamo and Spanish Conquistador Diego Velaquez joined forces to make war on them.

Macorix

Another separate ethnic identity from what was Quisquaya and now the Dominican Republic

Guanahatabey

A separate ethnic identity from far western Cuba

Eyeri/Kaliphuna

Often called Carib, the women, often abducted neo-Taínas, spoke Eyeri a language very close to Taíno. Kaliphuna (Carib) is distinct the most famous phrase in Carib is “!Ana Cariná Rote!” ‘Only we're human!’ (de Cora, 1972)

Ethnic/cultural derivatives

Guajiros and Jibaros

The common name given to the rural inhabitants of Cuba is Guajiros. This word is believed derived from the neo-Taino honorific title Guaoxoerí (your mercy) given to the nitaínos of lesser nobility; other higher ranking salutations were Baharí (your lordship) and Matumberí (your highness) (Zayas, p. 244-245 and 270). Although Guajiro is often translated as peasant, this is a misnomer, unlike peasants which in Spanish are called peónes by definition those who travel on foot, Guajiros often ride their small tough Criollo horses, are usually armed with cutlasses (machetes), and at least until the Castro era in which many were concentrated in state housing or enclosed cities, lived in separate scattered housing. This dwelling spacing apparently derives from circumstances left over from the times of the cimarrón (La Rosa Corzo, 2003), and the repressions of the count of Valmaceda in the Ten Years' War and that of Valeriano Wyler in the 1895-1898 Cuban War of Independence. The Guajiros usually form the bulk of the fighting force in Cuban wars; thus a better translation would be yeoman. In Puerto rico, the rural inhabitants are called Jibaros.It should be noted that the term jíbaro, according to the Catholic online encyclopedia, is also the name of a tribal group in South America, it meant "mountain men." Jíbaro means "People of the Forest" in the Taíno language. So the term obviously came with them as they immigrated from South America. However "jíbaro" - as is used in Puerto Rico, isn't used the same in Cuba or the Dominican Republic, which were populated with the very same Taíno people. In Cuba the word jibaro is used to denote something wild or untamed, such as "perros jibaros " or wild dogs.

Guajiro nation

The term Guajira in addition to being the female form of Guajiro, also refers to indigenous nation of the Guajira Peninsula between Venezuela and Colombia. For a small compendium of myths of this Nation please see: de Cora, Maria Manuela 1972. Kuai-Mare. Mitos Aborígenes de Venezuela. Monte Avila Editores Caracas.

Pre-Siberian American Aborigines

Pre-Siberian American Aborigines contributions to ethnic mix have been suggested (External Link

); however, unlike Brazil (External Link

) (External Link

), no human remains assigned to this ethnicity have been found as yet in the Caribbean.

Later nations in this general area

The Arawak. Caribe and other Meso American coast and the Amazonian cultures can be considered as part of a tenuous continuum of nations, linked by some shared vocabulary, ethnic links, agricultural practices, reinforced by bride abduction, and continuous exogamy. After the violence of the Spanish Conquest, and subsequent events of African Slavery and rebellion, nations and cultures with diverse amounts of Arawak ethnicity, culture, and/or traditions transmuted and arose. Some of these Nations had mixed, or even predominantly African roots and include the Cimarrón of Cuba, the Maroon (people) of Jamaica and Guyana, and the Seminole of Florida.
The names of these three distinct cultures are transliterations of the original, apparently Taíno or Siboney root, Cimarrón. The equivalent high Taíno root may well be Jíbaro, which is a name commonly given to a perhaps related South American Nation the Shuar who have many Arawak type cultural customs, and which are said by some to have lost its language, and forced to adapt Quechua as the common language (lengua general).
Whether such nations as the Garifuna, and Miskito should be included is left to academic debate.

:Hill, Jonathan D. and Fernando Santos-Granero (eds.). 2002. Comparative Arawakan Histories. Rethinking Language Family and Cultural Area in Amazonia. University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago. ISBN 025027582

:Hulme. Peter 2000 Remnants of Conquest. The Island Caribs and their Visitors, 1877-1898. Oxford University Press ISBN 0198112157

:La Rosa Corzo, Gabino (translated by Mary Todd) [1988] 2003 Runaway Slave Settlements in Cuba: Resistance and Repression, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill ISBN 0807828033 ISBN 0807854794

:De la Riva Herrera, Martín 2003 La Conquista de los Motilones, Tabalosos, Maynas y Jíbaros. CETA Iquitos, Perú ISBN 8489295050 ISBN 9972941078Further Information

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